Going

INTRODUCTION

We are back in our series called Missional Creatures, and it’s all about how God is shaping and forming his followers, every single part of you, to take part in his all-out pursuit to reconcile the relationship between God and man. In Genesis 1, God gives the first man and woman a mission to multiply the goodness of God’s kingdom throughout the earth, to bless the world and cause it to flourish and grow according to the good and right ways of God. In Genesis 12, God gives the same mission to a man named Abraham, the forefather of the nation of Israel. On down the line, from Abraham to Jacob to Moses to David to the Prophets, the same mission mandate was given. Through them the nations would be blessed; through them, the world would come to know God and find their hope, their rest, their worth, and their life in him. Jesus gives us this same mandate in Matthew 28:18-20, and we are taking a deep dive into this commissioning, week be week, word by word, because here at First Baptist Church, we are committed to being and becoming a Gospel-Centered, Mission-Driven, Community-Oriented People.

PRAY

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So far, we have discussed how Jesus has all power and authority to make mission possible. Without Jesus leading the way, we have no mission, we have no power, we have no direction. But Jesus makes mission possible; his authority empowers to carry it out, he makes it worth going, worth loving, worth seeking. We believe that sin can be forgiven, hearts made clean, addictions overcome, relationships reconciled, and broken lives restored, and that believe propels the mission forward. Last week, we talked about the primary command of Jesus, and that is to make disciples. Our mission is not to make converts, to simply convince people that Christianity is right and others are wrong. Our mission is to lovingly, graciously, and passionately come alongside others as they seek the truth found in Jesus, and as they are changed and transformed to become more like him in every way, even as we pursue the same thing. The mission of Jesus really is that we ourselves are disciples who multiply—in other words, we are followers of Jesus who make followers of Jesus (our mission statement!)

This week, we start mapping out the method of making disciples. Jesus puts forward three verbs that are used to explain the way we make followers. We disciple others by going, by baptizing, and by teaching. Today, we start with the first verb: going. And it’s simple really. Missional Creatures are made to go, to move about, to get out of their comfort zones and be present with people who need Jesus, so that we can be Jesus to them.

WE ARE SENT ONES

Now, what I find fascinating right here in Jesus’ words is that these three verbs—going, baptizing, teaching—they are not imperative commands, meaning, Jesus isn’t just telling you to do something. He is giving you an identity. These are participles; really, the best way to translate this verse is to say, “you who are going, you who baptize and teach, you need to make disciples.” If the authority of Jesus is the engine, and disciple-making is the motive, then going, baptizing, and teaching are the physical expressions. For the mission of Disciple-making, Jesus is giving you the calling to be emissaries, baptizers, and teachers. That’s your vocational role in the kingdom of God. Let’s start with the first one.

You are called to be an emissary. In simpler terms, Jesus has made you a sent one. This means that, embedded into your very identity as a Christian, as a Spirit-filled disciple of Jesus, is the urge, the twitch, the passion and burden, to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (ethne, every type of people). Sent-ness is part of the created image of the first humans, and it remains part of our new creation coding. In each of the gospels, Jesus gives different instructions: make disciples, preach the gospel, forgive sins, heal the sick, bear witness to Jesus. But one thing is stays the same. We are sent.

Go, therefore, and make disciples… (Matthew 28:18)

Go into all the world and preach the gospel… (Mark 16:15)

Beginning in Jersualem… You are witnesses of these things… (Luke 24:47-48)

As the Father has sent me, I also send you (John 20:21)

The book of Acts continues the story of the Gospels. It is the account of Jesus being lived out by his disciples, telling how his followers took the commission of Jesus seriously. Right at the beginning, in Jerusalem, the church explodes with the witness of a small, Spirit-filled band of brothers. On Day 1, the church starts out 3000 strong. Out of nothing, the humble beginnings of the Jesus movement becomes a bustling, thriving community. And we wouldn’t be surprised, and in fact we might come to expect from our own experience that the rest of the book of Acts tells the story of this beautiful mega church community, how much it loves Jesus and keeps growing, how well it trains leaders and raises kids and puts on incredible worship services, and how people come far and wide to Jerusalem to see what amazing and wonderful things this are happening in this hot spot of God’s presence on earth. Our expectation comes from a place of experience—that’s what churches do, they grow and expand and become wealthier and more powerful and more influential, like beacons of success and goodness that just draw people in. Except that’s not the real testimony of the church, and that’s not the story of Acts. The story of Acts does not celebrate the institution of the Church organization. We desperately want the story of the church to be COME AND SEE! But it’s not. The Story of the church is GO AND TELL! The book of Acts celebrates the movement of Jesus’ followers as they take the gospel out of Jerusalem, into Judea, and into Samaria, and out to the four corners of the known world. The mission of Jesus goes out like a ripple effect, as the Spirit falls with a profound impact on the earth, it shifts the very spiritual ground they walk on, radiating out to all nations.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m an Acts 2 guy. I love the picture of the early church in Acts 2:42, meeting together, breaking break together, receiving the teaching of the apostles and sharing their possessions so that no one is in need. It’s absolutely beautiful. But it’s not the end. It doesn’t stay there. If it stays there, it’s not a movement. I was reading an article this week by Tim Keller as he defined the characteristics of a movement. He talks about vision, spontaneity, sacrifice, unity—and I agree with all of that. But there’s one thing, one basic element, that I think defines every single cultural movement this world has ever seen including Christianity, and it’s this: a movement moves. I feel like that should be obvious, but it’s worth saying out loud: movements are called such because people are inspired and driven to go out, to leave behind stability and security and safety and spread their life-changing message to the world. The book of Acts is driven forward, moment by moment, by faithful followers of Jesus, going, moving, traveling, journeying, ever further, ever farther, out and out and out, and as they go, as they move, the Spirit moves with them. They don’t leave behind the sacred space of the “church”; they are the church, and it goes where they go.

Oswald Chambers, an old Scottish preacher, once wrote this:

The church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is only on the lookout for the development of its own organization.

We were made to go out. All of us. The church is most healthy scatters as purposefully on mission as it gathers. When we get together on Sundays, we plan and prepare, we ready our families, we study and serve and sing, and every moment of our liturgy is intentionally guided toward and deep and worshipful encounter with the living God. And yet, shouldn’t our going out, into the world, building relationships, living out our witness and our testimony, be just as intentional, just as meaningful, just as hope-filled?

Now, sometimes in the church we’ve gotten this idea that the only people who need to go out are those with the spiritual gift of evangelism, or with the vocational calling of missionary. First, the Bible has no vocational role called missionary; that’s something we made up. A missionary is one who lives his or her life aligned to the mission of God, and that ought to include all of us. Second, I think we have gotten our the idea of evangelism a little messed up. We think evangelism is giant crusades with impassioned speeches, or knocking on doors and handing out tracts. Those can be forms of evangelism, but they are not exclusively so. Evangelism is just the act of bringing the message of Jesus to someone who needs it, and each of you is uniquely gifted to do that as you are. The issue is not whether or not you have been equipped to share the gospel. The issue is, will you go?

Sometimes the act of going just looks like keeping our eyes open and our homes available. You don’t have to journey to some far off land to fulfill the mandate; just take your dog for a walk. Go to the grocery store. Get your hair cut. Take your kid to soccer practice. Missional living means that you are “going” wherever you go. Every venture into the public sphere is an opportunity to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

KNOW YOUR CITY, LOVE YOUR CITY

Now, I know I’ve spent a lot of time so far just talking about how the church in general needs to be a church that goes. And I know that I have spent much of it talking through how you, as a sent-one of God, go forth in a very local, everyday-life sort of way. And that can sound like I am somewhat disregarding the need for global partners, men and women who do venture beyond borders to the furthest reaches of the earth. Don’t get me wrong; I am not dismissing the impact and the importance of missionaries that leave behind the safety and security of the Western Church and go out to spend their lives in places like Mexico, and Brazil, and Chile, and Cambodia and China and Ghana. That is absolutely a part of the ripple effect, taking the church out to unreached areas, to people who need Jesus and have no other way to hear about him. For centuries, missionaries have brought the freedom of the gospel to nations and cultures bound and tied and enslaved to sin and death. We continue to partner with church planters in Central and South America, and we are looking for new and creative ways to encourage and further the reach of Jesus.

But here’s where I keep coming back, and where I think God has us in this pivotal moment as the church. I look at the ripple effect that Jesus describes in Acts 1:8:

Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Put yourself into that crowd of disciples as Jesus is speaking. He tells his disciples that their mission will begin locally, in Jerusalem, amidst people who think like them, dress like them, act like them, worship like them—similar, like-minded people of same heritage and culture. Then, he says they will expand from there to the greater region of Judea, still similar in culture and language, but it’s going to take some relationship building, it will be outside of your immediate circles and spheres of influence. Then—and this would have been tough to hear—you will be sent to Samaria; these are people who are geographically near but culturally distant, in including those we have been taught to fear or even hate. In the first-century, Samaritans were half-Jewish, half Idumean, from the family of Esau. Idumeans were traitors; this is where Herod’s line came from. So Samaritans, because of their Jewish heritage, were maligned by the true line of Esau, and they were spit on by Jews, the true line of Jacob. Everybody hated Samaritans, and you were raised to hate them, to spit on them to think of them as second-class citizens, barely human. Jesus says, they are your first stop on your way to the ends of the earth.

Now, here’s why I say this: in general, we tend to do really well with Jerusalem and the ends of the earth, but we’re not so hot with Judea and Samaria. We work hard at reaching the Christians near us who already love Jesus and know the gospel and are already familiar with the cultural dynamics of Christian church gatherings. And we like sending a select few bold ones out to remote corners of the earth to translate the Bible into new languages and eat strange foods and wear colorful clothing. We’re good at right here, and we’re good waaaay over there. But what about the middle space? What about just beyond our comfort zones? What about the neighbor who plays his music too loud and has a few too many tattoos? What about that coworker who lives with her boyfriend (or better yet, her girlfriend)? What about the muslim family at your kid’s school? The gospel is God’s good news for each and every one of them, and it will only reach them if we take it there. And so our warning here is to be careful not to reduce our community to first blush perspective and rash judgments, first, because we ourselves would hate to be judged the same way, and second, because Jesus understood the deep complexities of the human condition and led with grace in order speak with truth. So befriend the stranger, welcome the weird, love your enemy. As a church, I think we would be uniquely missional we took on the mandate of going to this middle space, of reclaiming a territory for Jesus that has been largely abandoned by greater Christian community.

Now, what it take to do this? How should we prepare to go? Remember how I said Paul says mission in the Bible is like running a race? How do you a race without training and preparing? The first step toward going, toward missionally engaging the middle space, is by doing some cultural exegesis. Cultural Exegesis means knowing your city in order to love your city. There is something about taking Jesus into the public square—not presenting Jesus, but embodying—that shifts your heart. Suddenly your neighbors are no longer enemies, vagrants or hooligans, but real people. And suddenly, you are no longer the pious, perfect, ignorant Christian, but a real person whose story of grace and mercy and forgiveness can actually make a difference.

I believe that we are living in a cross-cultural moment today. Crossing cultures used to mean going overseas, learning a foreign language, adapting to different dress and observing cultural customs native to one land but strange to another. But today you can cross a culture merely by crossing the street. I cross cultures just by sitting across from my kids at the dinner table. They speak a different language and dress strangely to me and observe customs that make no sense. But a missionary learns the art of respectfully wading into cultural waters in order to earn the right to speak the truth of Jesus into others’ lives.

In your Gospel-Communities (that’s what I’m calling our breakout groups), I want you to practice this today. Do some cultural exegesis. Be careful not to caricature. If you don’t know, admit that you don’t know. But be observant, be thoughtful. If you need to, take your group outside; literally go, and as you go, pray and watch. How do people live? How do they work? How do they speak? How do they play? What’s most important to them? I was reading one missiologist this week, and he said that the greatest tool in his arsenal when learning about a culture? Ask questions. It’s not terribly hard. Introduce yourself, ask how a person a doing, and then listen. Don’t input your own agenda, don’t force Jesus into the conversation, just love someone by learning about them. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to share their lives with you, because no one has asked them. What you’ll find is that as the formality drops, as they caricature fades, you’ll find yourself standing in front of a person in need of the same grace and mercy and forgiveness that you just happen to have, in need of the healing power of Jesus, in need of faithfulness and gentleness and kindness. So go. Get up, get out, and get going.

COMMUNION PASSAGE

1 John 4:16–19 CSB

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us.